“Jesus says: If those who lead you say to you, ‘The kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds will get there first. If they say, ‘It is in the sea, then the fish will get there first. Rather, the kingdom of God is within you, and outside of you. When you come to know yourselves then . . . you will know that you are the children of God.
“Here, with some irony, Jesus reveals that the kingdom of God is not an actual place in the sky—or anywhere else—or an event expected in human time. Instead, it’s a state of being that we may enter when we come to know who we are and come to know God as the source of our being. In Thomas, then, the “good news” is not only about Jesus; it’s also about every one of us. For while we ordinarily identify ourselves by specifying how we differ, in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, background, family name, this saying suggests that recognizing that we are ‘children of God’ requires us to recognize how we are the same—members, so to speak, of the same family.
“These sayings suggest what later becomes a primary theme of Jewish mystical tradition: that the ‘image of God,’ divine light given in creation, is hidden deep within each one of us, linking our fragile, limited selves to their divine source. Although we’re often unaware of that spiritual potential, the Thomas sayings urge us to keep on seeking until we find it: ‘Within a person of light, there is light. If illuminated, it lights up the whole world; if not, everything is dark.’
“Emerging from a time of unbearable grief, I felt that such sayings offered a glimpse of what I’d sensed in my vision of a net. They helped dispel isolation and turn me from despair, suggesting that every one of us is woven into the mysterious fabric of the universe, and into connection with each other, with all being, and with God.”
What we’re looking for may not be anything supernatural, as we usually understand what we call ‘spiritual.’ Instead, as one saying in Thomas suggests, we may find what we’re seeking right where we are: ‘Jesus says: “Recognize what is before your eyes, and the mysteries will be revealed to you.”
Like Emily Dickinson’s poems, such sayings remain opaque as stone to anyone who has not experienced anything like what they describe; but those who have find that they open secret doors within us. And because they do, what each person finds there may be—must be—different. Each time we read them, the words may weave like music into a particular situation, evoking new insight. Some secret texts calm and still us, as when listening in meditation; others abound in metaphor, flights of imagination, soaring and diving.”
Pagels, Elaine. Why Religion? (p. 176-178). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
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